As the July 31 trading deadline nears and the Greens hover one game behind the Harrisburg Heroes, the offensive landscape changes again in Moline. This afternoon, through a hooded spokesman,
Moline confirmed the trade of Carlos Delgado to the Savannah Carpetbaggers of the Southern division of the Shoeless Joe League. In exchange for Delgado, Moline acquired minor-league first baseman Nick Johnson, and Savannah's first-round picks for 2003 and 2004, plus $10 for each draft. The trade had been subject of recent rumors in the local press and on sports talk programs on KJOC in Davenport. The Greens named salary as the major impetus behind the move, though Delgado's season-long ennui can't have helped his cause. Understudy Mike Sweeney, underutilized all year long, will take over first-base duties for Moline, until he, too, becomes too expensive for the salary structure of the franchise.
With the acquisition of Johnson, Moline has in its minor-league stable perhaps the top three first-base prospects in the minors in Johnson, Jack Cust, and Adrian Gonzalez. (The absence of Carlos Pena from that list speaks to his lowly numbers at AAA.) Position redundancy at first base ranks only above such duplication at designated hitter, but the spokesman tried to spin the glut to Moline's advantage. "At various points in our history, we drafted Dave Nilsson, Carlos Delgado, and Mike Sweeney, intending for each to be our catcher of the future. All three moved to first base. Perhaps one of these first-base prospects will see fit to balance the scales in the years to come and move to a more valuable position, as Pat Burrell did on the departure of Manny Ramirez." Burrell, who has fanned 103 times this season to accompany his mere 10 home runs, was not available for comment.
Delgado is the last of the three offensive cornerstones of this franchise to be traded this year. "We cannot yet say," said the spokesman, "that the last to go will see the first three go before him. We can say that in a better, greener world we'd still be serving up clubhouse pate to Chipper Jones, Manny Ramirez, and Carlos Delgado. We might also be in first place. But c'est le guerre. Ce n'est pas le monde juste."